Phonar: Task 5 – Final Images + Critical Rationale

For steps 4 and 5 of task 5 I had to complete the assignment in the Photographer’s Playbook by Massimo Vitali and provide a rationale for my decisions. The task called for me to make intentional mistakes while shooting a roll of film and these mistakes could lead to an unintentional masterpiece of an image. Below are my final images and critical rationale.

Critical Rationale

After reading the assignment many times and trying to work out how I wanted to intentionally make mistakes I decided to use a disposable camera as in the past when I have taken images on a disposable it is very unpredictable what the outcome will be even if I use the correct lighting and keep the camera still. I wanted to play with the unpredictability of outcome of the images even further by intentionally taking images while walking, photographing from angles that would not be in focus, pointing the camera into the shade and direct sunlight, moving the camera while holding the shutter and even using the camera without flash in dark lighting conditions outdoors. After carrying out research into Massimo Vitali for my other steps and discovering he shot in the direct sun on a summers day I wanted to include this element into my own work by shooting directly into the sun. This is something I often avoid due to the sun causing glare or harsh shadows however no matter how hard I tried to distort the image or cause a mistake that would result in the image looking bad once getting the images developed it was evident that my attempts to ruin the image actually created an abstract element to the image and don’t necessarily make the image bad. In fact it makes the images look almost documentary like almost like images taken by a participant. This is something I would like to continue to experiment with in my own work in the future and I now have the confidence to make mistakes while shooting as they could turn out to be an interesting and unusual image.